Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas (Reform) said before the beginning of the NATO summit in Warsaw that the alliance needed to reinforce its deterrent and in a historic breakthrough bring the largest allied force in history to Estonia.

The alliance’s long-term positions in matters of defense and deterrence as well as NATO’s presence in Estonia will be defined at the summit. Rõivas will attend the two-day event in the Polish capital together with Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand (independent), Defence Minister Hannes Hanso (SDE) and commander of the Estonian Defence Forces Lt. Gen. Riho Terras.

“One of the goals of the Warsaw summit is to perpetuate what was achieved in the NATO Readiness Action Plan approved in Wales. This means a 24/7 NATO air policing mission from Ämari, a more efficient and faster Response Force of NATO, and a NATO staff element in Estonia,” the prime minister said.

Another goal is to increase the presence of allied troops in Estonia. For Estonia this means an effective battalion-sized combat group with a long-term pre-planned rotation schedule - in other words, approximately a thousand allied troops constantly stationed in Estonia.

The summit is discussing NATO-EU cooperation and collaboration to ensure security in the Baltic and the Black Sea areas, joint action by NATO and the EU to respond to challenges in the South. The NATO-Ukraine commission will meet within the NATO summit, and there will also be a meeting on continued support to Afghanistan.

Other meetings at the summit include the NATO-Georgia commission at the foreign ministers' level, and a meeting between the foreign ministers of NATO's most able partners and the EU High Representative of Foreign and Security Policy to discuss ensuring and increasing security.